Sadly there’re many bloggers who don’t realize the impact and importance of dramatic headlines. And then they wonder why no one is clicking on their posts!

 

Newspapers for years knew the power of headlines!

In the old days, young newspaper boys would flash newspapers in their hands, and stand on busy road intersections, repeatedly heralding and shouting, “HEAR ALL ABOUT IT…!” And next to them would be ad boards with the latest headlines boldly stated. 

And when you bought the paper, you quickly searched the sub-headings and first paragraphs to see the basic facts, before reading on. 

What does that tell you?

1. If their headlines weren’t dramatic or exciting enough, they didn’t sell papers… period! 
2. You need a herald messenger creating `uproar’ in the right places where most people will hear and see it. Today, we use social media platforms. 
3. And the title sub-head-lines are very important, to make people want to read further, to see what’s it all about. 

The difference between:

1. Title head-lines are to catch attention and be clickable (desire-able). 
2. Sub-head-lines explain the basic trend or facts and suggest what the story is going to be about.  

AND PLEASE NOTE: The  sub-head-line mustn’t be repeated word for word , the same as the headline title! 

If it’s repeated word for word, people feel the blogger doesn’t care enough and the post is sure to be boring. Because there isn’t enough facts to encourage people to click on the post, no one will go there and read it!

The title sub-head-lines:

If the wording is different to the title, sub-headlines give you another chance to grab people’s attention… in a different way. 

Sub-headings are there to prepare people in advance as to what to expect, if they should read further. 

Not everything in great detail. Just the gist of what the post is about, to entice and wet people’s appetite and grab their interest. That is, sub-headlines should give a reason or motivation to read further. 

Paragraph sub-headings,

…Are something else. They basically summarize what will be in the next paragraph. 

They also are there to catch people’s attention… enticing people to read on. 

Why are headlines and headings so important?

• People are lazy! They haven’t time to waste on dribble. 

If there are whole blocks of words, it looks like a field or maze of words. TOO much… to read all that! 

But if there are interesting headlines, sub-headlines and sub-headings that stand out from all the rest, it’s easy and quick to assess what everything is about. So sub-headings continue to wet people’s expectations. 

The use of image captions:

Going back to the newspaper news impact… People sometimes haven’t got the time to read the story. So they first check out the photo captions, to catch the gist of what happened. 

So captions are also like sub-headlines. They summarize the basic action facts. 

The quality of your headlines, etc:

To catch people’s eye and attention, they must be bold, short, dynamic, and dramatically gripping. 

• Long worded headline titles… are too long to read quickly. 

Take out all the unnecessary words. This creates a bolder statement. 

The power of words in your headlines, etc:

• Sassy, saucy, catchy words suggest humour and fun. 
• Way-out wacky words catch people’s imagination. 
• Drama- packed doing words are an assurance there will be real action. 
• Starting with the words ‘How too…’ is a promise of help. 
• Bold shocking words have a powerful impact on the mind. 
• Provocative words have an element of surprise and evoke people’s curiosity.